Safety Risk: Ride In Rear Of Pickups

Florida lawmakers are preparing again to push for a seat belt law, but national safety experts say they are ignoring another major driving hazard -- riders in the rear of pickup trucks.

Twenty-one people died and 627 were injured in Florida last year in accidents involving riders in truck beds -- the third highest in the nation. About 250 people died in such accidents nationwide, according to federal traffic safety figures.

''It is something that needs attention,'' said Larry Jackson, a highway safety engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, D.C., which has pushed states since 1979 to ban passengers from pickup beds.

''I shiver when I see baseball teams in the back of pickup trucks, knowing even a low-speed impact could kill someone.''

At least five states and the District of Columbia ban passengers from pickup beds or require special seating or safety equipment if passengers are carried there. A few others -- including Florida -- specifically allow it.

''You tie down furniture to make sure it doesn't get bumped around. Yet your most prized possession -- your children -- are allowed back there with no protection.

''It's like putting a watermelon in the back of a truck and slamming on the brakes. It will smash to pieces, and that's what will happen to people.''

Federal officials say their efforts to get more states to pass such laws have been eclipsed by campaigns on drunken driving and seat belts.

Florida laws require child restraint seats, truck loads to be securely tied down and riders to stay off the exterior of a moving vehicle. The newest safety law standardizes bumper height on pickups.

However, statistics compiled by the Florida Highway Patrol for this year's Legislature show an average of six deaths a year caused by bumper heights, less than a third of those killed by riding in pickup beds.

So far this year, 12 pickup riders have been killed and another 477 were injured, the FHP said.

Federal safety experts say pickups' popularity as work and recreational vehicles often makes the topic politically hot to handle.

Florida officials agree. ''You've got a tradition of years and years of people riding in the back of pickup trucks,'' said Willis Booth, executive director of the Florida Police Chiefs Association in Tallahassee.

Meanwhile, lawmakers making another attempt to roll through a seat belt bill next year have shied away from the issue.

''I'm not going to take on that battle at this moment. I've had a difficult enough time putting in the child restraint bill,'' said Rep. Fred Lippman, D- Hollywood, who has filed a seat belt bill for next April's session.

''I think it's probably a very improper and definitely proven unsafe practice,'' he said. ''But in the real world of legislative politics, one has to take on the job that's most important.''

Rep. Tom Drage, R-Winter Park, who is co-sponsoring Lippman's bill, said he had not even thought about the hazards of riding in a pickup until a reporter questioned him last week.

Drage said he is most concerned that 70 percent of pickup bed passengers killed or injured are under 22 years of age. That statistic, he said, ''is not much different'' from those used to support child restraint legislation.

''The same arguments I would make for why we should adopt seat belt legislation are the same I would make'' for a pickup bed law, he said.

But Drage said he would not sponsor legislation banning pickup bed passengers because more lives -- 680 to 1,000 a year -- could be saved by a seat belt law.

''I don't want to be tagged as someone cutting off people's liberties,'' he said, ''even if it meant we had to go another year with more people being injured in pickup truck accidents.''

Rep. Charles Nergard, R-Port St. Lucie, said he decided last week to look into legislation.

''I see a complete fallacy of a 7-year-old riding in the back of a truck while a 5-year-old has to be in a safety seat,'' Nergard said.

Statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation bear out authorities' concern:

-- Florida ranks behind Texas and California in the number of deaths and injuries caused by riding in a pickup bed. California reported 49 deaths in 1984 while Texas had 26 -- five more than Florida.

-- New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Wisconsin, Colorado and the District of Columbia either regulate or prohibit pickup bed riding.

-- In pickup truck accidents, cargo area deaths ranked second only to deaths involving just a driver. In accidents where passengers rode in both the cab and the bed, four times as many cargo area riders were killed.

-- About 70 percent of those killed or injured are 22 years or younger; the majority are under 16.